~ Bitter cold truth. Bitter cold commentary.

The Fictional Fr. Makarewicz on Abortion

For no reason in particular, I am writing a work of fiction on my blog because I don’t really know where else to put it and I’m in a writing mood. It is a fake blog post written by a fictional character in one of my stories, a conservative Catholic priest named Dobry Makarewicz. This is NOT how I think, but my vision of what a conservative Catholic man would think.

And for the most part, the reaction of the Catholic community has been one of denial, especially of the “No True Scotsman” variety. We tell ourselves, “No real, practicing Catholic girl would do such a thing! These women must all be Chreasters…you know, the ones that might come to Mass on Christmas and Easter and who think ‘immaculate conception’ means ‘virgin birth.’ All I know is it’s not something you’ll find in my family!”

Of course, we have no way of knowing how devout these women were, so it’s wishful thinking to think that none of these women was a “real” Catholic. But even if we could know, and we knew that every last one of these women was a Chreaster, what difference would that make?

Seriously. What difference would it make?

Even if all of these women are Catholic in name only, the fact that they identify as Catholic at all tells me that they had a Catholic upbringing. Many of them likely had a strong, pious Catholic upbringing and fell away later in life. Chances are, they went to Catholic school or CCD. They were baptized and confirmed. Yet these same women, in large numbers, are willing to commit a sin so serious that it warrants automatic excommunication.

What happened to us?

I know that today’s children lack a solid Catholic identity. Like most families and communities today, Catholic families, parishes, and schools are breaking down. As a result, children no longer are educated, disciplined, or supported in the quest to lead a Catholic life. At one point, most Catholics took for granted that:

The body is a temple and that chastity honors this temple

That all human life is created by God and is a gift

That strong families, designed in accordance with natural law, build strong societies

That true love is found and expressed in holy matrimony

Children are no longer receiving these messages from the adults in their lives, so they learn instead from their peers and the secular media. What are they learning?

Marriage and family are not important

There is no proper order to family life

The false intimacy and temporary pleasure of casual sex is an adequate substitute for faith and family

When worse comes to worse, drop in at the clinic, spend a few hundred bucks, and you don’t have a problem tomorrow

Two other factors that I implicate are individualism and feminism. In our society, the individual is a god unto himself. We are in control and we are here to do not God’s will, not the will of the community, but our will. As a society, we have also bought wholesale into feminist ideology. This obviously has benefits for the rights and well-being of women (education, being able to vote, etc.) but the feminism of today is a perversion of what it should be. Modern feminism dictates that the unique gifts of each gender, including the uniquely female gift of bearing and nurturing life, are not to be celebrated, but denied. On top of that, women are taught that men are not relevant to their lives and that men might hinder or even harm them. The desire not to be seen as sexist often prevents fathers, brothers, lovers, etc. from stepping in and protecting the women in their lives as they should.

Every unborn child of a Catholic woman is a gift and every abortion death a tragedy, but the impact is most deeply felt in minority communities. When I see fellow Poles or Romanis in the clinic, it breaks my heart. A people that, for years, have been so hunted down, discriminated against, and even slaughtered are now doing what our enemies have tried and failed to do-destroying ourselves from within. Those communities that are most vulnerable, that most need to welcome new life and revitalize their cultures are committing slow suicide.

What’s painfully ironic about all this is that so many young girls see this as the solution to the problem of prejudice. If I just get rid of my little ‘problem,’ I can go to school, get a job, and do what society expects of me, I will no longer be confronted with bigotry. I will finally be equal. In reality, that problem of prejudice is not solved that way and, in fact, reinforces it because it reinforces the idea that our people and culture don’t have a right to exist and that they can be destroyed with impunity and without fanfare.

Well, I won’t stand for it. I refuse to allow my little sister, or my mother, or any of the women in my life buy into the lies. Our children don’t choose, or deserve to die, nor do our women deserve to suffer permanent physical and psychological damage. Why do we call a gruesome medical procedure, involving poking, prodding, and then butchering a woman’s intimate parts with metal instruments, empowering? It’s not.

See, that’s the sort of question we should be asking.

Not,” But how many of them were real Catholics?”

Comment below. Moderation required for all first-time commenters.

Candy Wakeham aka CrunchyCathMum says:

I think you have it pretty much right except for the first question. I doubt most of these women were really Catholic. Any abortion is a tragedy, like you said, but we have millions of Catholics that claim the label out of habit but don’t practice at all. To me, that’s encouraging, because that tells me that we can change this with better catechesis. More and and clearer catechesis, at younger ages, from Catholics in GOOD standing might make the Catholic community turn around. Right now, we have people who are not in good standing telling people that authority and theology aren’t important and that you should just follow your conscience, regardless of how well-formed it is.

Also, I noticed that your link is from the National Abortion Federation. No offense, but is that the most reliable source? Of course they would say that lots of women having abortions are Catholic. If more Catholic women felt at home in the abortion mill, that means more customers and more $$$. Plus, those that hate the Church (which most pro-aborts do) can use a high incidence of abortion in our community to attack us and undermine our credibility in the world.

Anyway, thank you SO much for this. It’s nice to see a different perspective that’s still Catholic!

Fr. Dobry says:

Thank you for the feedback, Candy. Everything you’ve said is true, but I still think the NAF is right on this one. If they really wanted to lie, I would think they would use a much higher number than 27%. The fact that ANY Catholic woman would have an abortion and then admit it is a huge accomplishment for them, and it’s something they would brag about. They don’t have any real reason to lie about that number. I agree that using a more reliable, Catholic source would be better, but they all pretty much say the same thing. These women weren’t really Catholic, blah blah blah. They’re in denial, and that was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to avoid.

Jeanette says:

I’m glad someone finally brought up the whole feminism thing. The Bible says that man and woman are complimentary and that man protects and provides for woman. When we remove this understanding from our culture, we get women trying to fill the void with promiscuity and then getting in trouble with pregnancy and disease. Since female gifts are no longer valued, abortion is a logical solution to this problem. Well, I’m traditional. I like men who are men, and if men were more willing to BE men, so many women would not fall pray to these types.

Thank you!

Abram says:

Another Pole here! Your writing always makes my day, but your paragraph about eugenics is spot on. The whole birth control/family planning culture is based on controlling the undesirables and people don’t realize that they are literally killing themselves. Maybe if we pointed this out, people would be more receptive to that.

Fr. Dobry says:

Everyone’s support is much appreciated. It’s good to know I’m not alone in this. I don’t know where you guys are from, but where I am, an election is coming up. Do your research, vote your values, and don’t forget to pray!!!

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2 thoughts on “The Fictional Fr. Makarewicz on Abortion”

It sounds realistic to me. In fact, it’s quite sympathetic. I disagree strongly with the character’s opinions, but you’ve stated them in a way that would fly with a lot of conservatives who aren’t assholes, but who don’t understand that their beliefs aren’t some kind of universal Truth.

Of course I was thinking “Let’s make more Catholic kids for the priests to abuse!” Because it’s the abuse scandals that have been losing the church so many people in the west in recent years, and the abuse scandals that make all of their socially conservative rhetoric sound completely hypocritical.

Genetic Catholic, here, BTW. It’s in my extended family’s culture, but both my parents dropped out of the church after high school (and that was back in the 60s).

I think you have hit the thought-process and the base convictions spot-on. If you want to read some real-world rants, go to the National Catholic Reporter and look at the comments sections for articles about women or women religious. The people who like to troll the Reporter hang out there and sound just like this!